Composition for treatment of artificial silk



' Patented Jui v, 1942 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,239,127 I I COMPOSITION FOR TREATMENT OF ARTIFICIAL SILK Theodoor Koch, Oosterbeek, Netherlands, assignor to American Enka Corporation, Enka, N. 0., e a corporation of Delaware No Drawing. Original application January 21,

1937,,Serial No. 122,663. Divided and this application April 0, 1939, Serial No. 268,994

- '2 Claims. (01. 252-8.?) This application is a division of my application Serial Number 122,663, filed January 27, 1937, now Patent No. 2,176,402, dated October 17, 1939.

The present invention relates to the treatment of textile fibers and more particularly to improved lubricating compositions for yarns, threads, filaments, and the like consisting wholly requisites for effecting optimum fabricating operations. By extensive experimentation it has been concluded that certain emulsifying and softening compositions used in combination with the lubricants have impaired the wetting out properties of the mixture. In other words, in

an efiort to, promote emulsification of the lubrior partially of natural or artificial. materials.

Whereas it is intended that the treatmentof natural fibers be included, the invention will be described in its specific application tofibers oi artificial origin. After cellulosic' solutions such as viscose have been extruded tp and the final product has been finished, it is normally subjected to several diiierent textile operations in order to fabricate the thread into a merchantable article. fThese textile operations, namely, knitting, weaving or braiding must be conducted by complicated machinery,. which exposes the thread to considerable wear unless the' textile industry, and principally the rayon.

industry, has employed many different-lubricating agents. Lubricating agents -a'lone such as ,mineral oils can not be used, as they, impart to the thread a harsh feeling and are not selfemulsifiable with aqueous solutions. ,Moreover,

-if lubricants are used without the addition of emulsifying and softening agents, the quantity form threads I metal parts with which the thread comes in cating compositions, the added substances-have to a great extent presented other serious drawbacks to the use of such a mixture. 'Now, in

order to reduce the friction between the'threads and the mechanical parts to a minimum, the

characteristic of spreading perfectly 'over the contact. This property is known as wetting out the various surfaces. When all of the surfaces properly wet out, considerably smaller quantities of the lubricating mixture may be employed with improved results.

It is,'therefore, the object of the present in: vention to provide a method for treating textile of artificial origin with a lubricating composition which contains "an emulsifying agent, a softening agent 'and a solvent for the mixture,

necessary to provide a smooth surface would be so large that it would be impractical. g

In providing an improved lubricating composition having certain advantages over the art,

United States Patent No. 2,025,435 of Aleidus G.

Bouhuys discloses and claims a composition for treating artificial. threads. Such a composition contains a lubricant, anem'ulsifying agent and a solvent. This solution has been found to give beneficial results more s'pecificallydescribed in the patent. v

It has now been determined that materials for protecting threads must have additional pre- 6.5

.said solution effecting stable emulsions with'water in any concentration.

An additional object of the present invention is to provide a protective medium for artificial silk threads which is lime-resistant, that is, it.

appreciably resists forming precipitates with the soluble salts of alkaline earth metals.

According to the present invention one of the most important aspects is the properselection of thematerials to be used incombination. The

fully applied. The composition is dissolved in a volatile solvent and spread over the surface to be tested. After evaporation of the solvent, if a continuous and coherent liquid film of the composition remains on the surface, the lubricating composition has the property of what is termed properly wetting out that surface. If the lubricant will not wet out the surface, it will form small drops thereon.

The foregoing test was conducted and the following lubricating compositions were adjudged to wet out cellulose and steel surfaces. Lubricants were used such as mineral oils and certain higher fatty acid esters of monohydrlc alcohols and particularly the lower monohydric alcohols mixed with emulsifying agents such as sulphonated olive oil and organic derivatives of amines. As softening agents which were used in the combination and did not retard the wetting out power of the mixture were materials such as glycerine and sulphonated alcohols.

The following table exemplifies the various groups of materials and any compound from either one of the groups may be mixed with one or more of the compounds of the other group and the resulting composition will exhibit the necessary characteristics for treating threads of natural or artificial origin:

Lubricants Fatty acid esters (a) Butyl stearate Emulsijying and so)- tening agents Sulphonated alcohols (a) Gardinols It is, of course, to be understood that in preparing a suitable composition by mixing materials. selected from the different groups in the above table, a solvent is usually desirable in or der to provide a clear solution. For example, it would ordinarily be to advantage to add a small quantity of oleic acid or Carbitol to obtain complete miscibility of the other ingredients and provide a clear emulsion with water.

The importance of the proper selection of materials to be. employed might be shown more clearly by pointing out that certain emulsifying and softening agents formerly employed destroy the wetting power of the lubricant for one or more surfaces with which itcomes in contact. For instance, sulphonated castor oil,

Monopol oil and Prestabit oil act to promote.

Compounds which have been lubrication, emulsification, softening, wetting out,

hygroscopicity and lime resistance. In addition to these properties, when esters are employed as the lubricant, they will readily saponify and thereby increase the solubility of the mixture. The emulsifying agents employed normally impart to the mixture the necessary hygroscopicity Y and lime resistance, that is, the composition will have the tendency to absorb moisture from the air and are stable toward calcium and magnesium, as they will not form precipitates with alkaline earth metals. Furthermore, the emulsion is resistant toward breaking in the dye bath in the presence of soluble inorganic sulphates and as a result will not hinder the action of the dye if left in the thread during the dyeing operation.

It is to be understood that the proportions of the lubricant, emulsifier and softener may be varied in accordance with the specific application of the composition. Examples of compositions which have been determined to give satisfactory results are given below:

Example 1.A simple lubricating composition may be formed according to the principles of this invention by thoroughly mixing about 75 parts by weight of butyl stearate with about 25 parts by weight of sulphonated olive oil and a suiiicient quantity of oleic acid to render the mixture 9. clear solution. The resulting composition is readily emulsifiable in water in any proportion and gives a very stable emulsion. It will form a coherent and an effective film on the surface of the thread and on the surface of the metallic and porcelain parts with which the thread comes in contact. This effective wetting out of all surfaces permits the application of smaller amounts than has hitherto been possible. For example,

' the thread may be impregnated with amounts which offers a number of advantages overformer compositions employed for analogous purposes. The present composition has several advantageous properties which were formerly lacking, namely,

ranging from 0.1% to 0.5% of the weight of the thread and friction will be reduced to a minimum.

Example, 2.Another lubricatin and softening composition may be prepared in accordance with the concept of this invention by employing a lubricant consisting of a mixture of 40 to 70% by weight of mineral oil and 5 to 25% by weight of butyl stearate. To this lubricant per se is added about 5 to 15% by weight of diethyl cyclohexylamine and about 10 to 30% by weight of oleic acid. Most of the oleic acid reacts with the amine to form the oleate. A small percent of free oleic acid remains which effects a clear solution. This composition has such a high degree of wetting out that small amounts ranging from 0.25 to 1.5% by weight of the thread may be successfully employed.

In both of the foregoing examples if additional softening of the thread is necessary, a small amount, for example, from 1 to 5% by weight of a sulphonated alcohol may be substituted in the mixture in place of the corresponding amount 0 emulsifying agent. I Example 3.One specific composition which is found to provide an effective protective medium for the thread is 65% by weight of mineral oil, 10% by weight of butyl stearate, 8% by weight of diethyl cyclohexylamine, 16% by weight of oleic acid and 1% by weight of glycerlne.

The lubricating compositions made by any of the preceding examples are in accordance with the principles of this invention and may be applied to the textile material by dipping skeins in the treating emulsion or by forcing the emulsion through wound spools, cakes or other packages of thread, or by applying the lubricating mixture directly to the thread. The composition' is so finely dispersed and stable that no :11- tering action takes place and hence there is an even distribution of the composition throughout all parts of the package. 7

' While three specific embodiments of the above invention have beengiven, it is to be understood that these examples are merely illustrative of the general principles and not limitative or the scope thereof. The invention herein described is to be limited only within the scope of the appended claims. 

